Jesus for India stands on God's promises and a father's vision

July 13, 2007, 5:26PM
Jesus for India stands on God's promises and a father's vision
Founder's family shepherds growing congregation in the face of challenges


HYDERABAD, INDIA — Rooted in a Muslim neighborhood in an overwhelmingly Hindu country, the founders of the Jesus for India Church and Bible Institute believe they are right where God put them, right where God wants them to be.

"Go west and you will find all the Muslims, go east and you will find all Hindus," the Rev. Daniel R. Variganji said of his bustling neighborhood. "Between them is this church."

The mission of this evangelical Christian outpost is to preach the Gospel to people who have never heard it.

The mission isn't a new concept to Variganji, 39. It was passed down from his evangelist parents and grandparents. The earliest Christians in his family were introduced to the faith by British missionaries.

"I strongly believe that in a country with so few Christians, my parents became Christians only through the love of our Heavenly Father and his dear son Jesus Christ," he said.

Now leading the church that his father, the late Rev. Abhishekanandam Variganji, founded in 1980, Variganji and his family — including his mother, two siblings and their children, his wife and two sons — shepherd a 400-strong congregation. The vast majority of their members converted from Hinduism, the religion practiced by 80 percent of Indians.

Several of the Jesus-praising women present on any given Sunday still wear the traditional Hindu bindi, a red dot on their forehead, in what now seems more a symbol of their heritage or marital status than their faith.

"If this church was not here, all these people would be without knowing the Lord and savior," said Mercy Beaulah Variganji, Daniel's sister and a leader in the church. "That is why we are here."

Freedom 'in theory'
Hindu temples and Muslim mosques are plentiful in Hyderabad, a city of about 5 million inhabitants.

Some 909 million of India's 1.13 billion people are Hindu. Muslims make up 151 million or 13.4 percent of the population. About 2.3 percent of Indians — or 26 million — are Christians.

"India has a secular constitution. It provides for freedom of religion in theory but not in practice," said the Rev. Stuart Windsor, national director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a U.K.-based human-rights organization.

Windsor estimates that 300,000 churches have been planted in India, and large masses of people are converting, especially those who were born into the lows of the caste system, he said. This has caused some degree of backlash by Hindu fundamentalists who want to make Hinduism the official religion of India.

"Pastors have been killed, nuns raped, churches have been burned," he said.

Sam Paul, national secretary of the All India Christian Council, said there is "an underlying tension between Muslims and Hindus in Hyderabad," where the Muslim population is 40 percent.

"The climate for the Christians is volatile, and the Hindu fundamentalism has grown over the years," he wrote via e-mail from Hyderabad. "There is no threat for Christians here from the Muslim fundamentalists, but there are severe threats, life risks, open challenges from the Hindu fundamentalists and their leaders."

In the past six years there have been five murders of Christian preachers in the local state, he said.

The Variganjis are aware of the situation.

"Do you think it is easy for us here to carry out the ministry? No, there are so many problems and it is quite unsafe," Mercy Variganji said. "But my father said this is where God called us."

Waiting for a sign
In 1980, after more than a year of permit delays and threats, a makeshift church opened its doors for worship. Besides the minister's family, only two people showed up — and they came out of sheer curiosity, said Ratna Kamala Variganji, 68, widow of the founder.

The sanctuary remained nearly empty for weeks on end, and it was discouraging, said Ratna Variganji, called "Mummy" by her children and many church members. But her husband did not lose hope.

"Without any purpose, God would not have brought us here," she remembers him saying. "So he said, 'We must wait upon the Lord and see what he is going to do here.' "

Her husband felt called to full-time ministry years earlier. In 1972, he gave up his position as a math professor at a government college in Hyderabad and began preaching the Gospel full-time in a riot-prone Hindu-Muslim region. They lived on the income Mummy made teaching English and social studies at a high school.

"This ministry was started by prayer and faith," Mummy said. "He left his job with five children, and we had to depend on God only."

Although he knew of no other churches in the old city and no Christians in the neighborhood, Abhishekanandam Variganji was determined to construct a church on property he purchased to build a home for his family.

Beginning the construction with only 5,000 rupees ($120 at today's exchange rate), the building went up as the money came in.

"The pillars first, then the walls, but we still worshipped on the mud floor," Mercy Variganji said. "Part by part, it was as the Lord provided, we constructed this church."

Opposition from Hindu fundamentalists in the neighborhood was relentless during the process, the family said. But in what seemed like a gift from God, the Christian governor of their state publicly showed his support for the church. Mummy credits this act for putting an end to many of the threats.

Carrying on
Hindus from the neighborhood eventually entered the church's gates, requesting prayer. Before long, they were bringing their friends, and the sanctuary was filling up.

The founding pastor took the ministry into outlying rural areas, preaching the Gospel in remote villages. He began training villagers to evangelize, his family said.

"His vision was not to preach to people who were already Christians," his daughter said. "His vision was to start a church in a place where there was not a church at all and to preach to people who didn't have a chance to hear about Jesus."

Just as the ministry entered this period of rapid growth, Variganji died in a construction accident at the church in 1989. His death was sudden, and the couple's children were still fairly young; it left his widow overwhelmed.

"I know how he suffered to establish the ministry here, and I could not leave the ministry," she said, wiping her cheeks on her green sari. "So how to continue? I struggled with what to do with the ministry."

She went into the church and prayed, asking God why he took her husband, how she was to continue and what the Lord was going to do to sustain her.

"For three days I prayed in the church, and the Lord gave us three promises. The first promise: 'Do not be afraid, I am with you.' The second: 'Cast your burden upon the Lord,' he said, 'the Lord will sustain you.' And the third: 'No weapon formed against you will prosper,' said the Lord."

"With these three promises I was strengthened," she said. "And I told them there was no use in thinking and feeling sorry because of these things. We must carry on."

Daniel, the eldest son, returned from his studies at a Bible college in Calcutta to help his mother.

Sustained by faith
These days, the faithful fill the sanctuary, sitting on a concrete floor covered in a material no thicker than oilcloth. They worship in neat rows, the men and boys on one side, the women and girls on the other.

A frayed red carpet that separates them is rolled out for services. A huge, hot pink cross made of paper stretches across the corrugated metal ceiling. Fans stir the warm air.

They come dressed in their most vibrant, decorated saris and freshly pressed shirts and with their Bibles in hand. Shoes are left outside the door.

Few parishioners have cars, so they come on foot or by crowded bus. For some, the journey takes more than an hour. During the dry late spring, temperatures hovered near 100 degrees.

But the journey seems forgotten when they walk through the white gate and into the Jesus for India Church.

"It's a blessing to have this church," said V. Raj Kumar.

The 18-year-old, whose parents and brother also attend the church, said that even with a Christian upbringing, it can be hard being a Christian in India. He is an oddity at his school.

About 90 percent of the congregation are daily-wage earners and poor by Indian standards. Some clean houses for 50 rupees (about $1.25) a day, others do construction work for between 100 and 150 rupees ($2.50-$4) a day. In Hyderabad, 20 rupees buys three mangoes or a dozen bananas. Ten to 15 rupees buys a bus ticket to church.

On Sundays, Daniel Variganji delivers a sermon and prays in Telugu, the local language. The congregation sings in both English and Telugu, and during the upbeat offering song nearly every person in the church lines up to give. Their gifts don't add up to much, but contributions from Variganji family members living in the United States help sustain the ministry.

The church's founding family believes the church must feed the physical body as well as the spiritual body. To that end, members prepare a fellowship meal so that the congregation can eat lunch before making the journey home. To save money on gas, the food is cooked in oversized pots that sit atop a wood-burning fire outside.

"It is a ministry by faith," Daniel Variganji said. "Sometimes we face many financial problems, but God doesn't allow us to be discouraged."

Other ministries
Besides Sunday services, the family leads all-night prayers, revivals, women's fellowship, youth meetings and fasting. They also offer counseling to local families.

In 2002, they established a small orphanage and home for the elderly above the church. Six children live in the orphanage, and the home for the elderly opens on an as-needed basis.

In 2003, they founded an offshoot church between two remote villages, and now more than 100 worshipers gather there each Sunday.

St. Mark's Primary School also was founded four years ago, strategically located in a slum area of the city, and aimed at educating the poor.

Housed in a rented building in need of fresh paint, the school educates nearly 200 children, 80 percent of whom get books and uniforms free of charge and pay no tuition. Classrooms are furnished with worn metal benches or plastic tables and chairs.

Most church members send their children to study there, yet only half of the students are from Christian families. Eleven instructors teach grades kindergarten through seven. Mummy, who serves as principal, hopes the facility will expand to include high school in the coming years.

"Our aim is to support them," she said, "so they can go to college."

Still believing
Srikala Ponnamala, who is studying for her master's degree in computer science at Lamar University in Beaumont, worshipped at Jesus for India for most of her life. She now attends a nondenominational church in Port Neches.

One of the main differences between practicing Christianity in the United States and in India is perception, she said.

"If you tell someone [in India] that you are a Christian, they will have some different opinions about you," she said, explaining that many automatically expect Christians to be from India's underclass.

"It is really hard sometimes," she said. Nonetheless, she misses the church that shaped her faith.

"I feel at home there," said Ponnamala, whose memories of the church and its founding family are vivid.

"Pastor Daniel's dad, he used to ... come to our house and used to pray for us," she said. "I was still small, but I remember that."

Ponnamala said it took a great deal of courage and dedication for the family to continue the ministry and expand it.

"Their faith is really strong, they believe in Jesus for everything," she said. "Even if they had many problems along the way, they still believe [link to www.chron.com]